Forms of Life: Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian

Description

Although they never met, Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian shared a deep dynamic connection to the natural world and a fascination with spiritualist beliefs. For them, science and mysticism were not exclusive practices, but part of the same essential framework for understanding the life forces around them. Both artists used them as tools for exploring the numinous transcendental power of nature and how it gives meaning to art and life. For the first time, the complex, symbiotic ecologies that sustained the practices of two of the twentieth-century's greatest painters are revealed. With a shared rootedness in the natural world and its wonderous life forms, the work of af Klint and Mondrian celebrates the numinous spiritual power of nature and how this gives both art and life meaning. Including works never before seen in the UK, this publication will elucidate and invigorate our understanding of two ground-breaking artists and will be sure to get synapses firing.

Nabila Abdel Nabi worked as an Associate Curator at The Power Plant, Toronto, and prior to this as Gallery Manager (Exhibitions) in The Third Line, Dubai. Nabila has worked on solo exhibitions and facilitated new commissions by artists including Abbas Akhavan, Kader Attia, Omar Ba and Amalia Pica, among others. She has curated the forthcoming Hajra Waheed exhibition Hold Everything Dear at The Power Plant, Toronto and was previously Art Editor at literary magazine The Point. Nabila holds an MA History of Art from The Courtauld Institute of Art. Laura Stamps is curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Kunstmuseum Den Haag and has previously worked at KM21 Den Haag. She worked on international exhibitions and catalogues of Alice Neel, Lee Bontecou, Paula Rego and Constant. New Babylon.